Stamford Hospital received the Women's Choice Award as an America's Best Hospital for Patient Experience in Obstetrics, as well as an America's Best Breast Center.

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Stamford Hospital received the Women's Choice Award as an America's...

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The new 11-story addition, left, shown during the dedication party and ribbon-cutting for the new Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Pavilion addition to the Danbury Hosptial in Danbury, Conn. Friday, June 20, 2014. Subway founder and Danbury resident Peter Buck donated $30 million toward the $150 million, 11-story addition to the hospital. The new addition features an expanded lobby entrance, state-of-the-art 30-bed critical care unit, 35-bed floor for surgical patients, expanded parking garage and the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Emergency Department, which will double the size of the hospital's old and overcrowded emergency room.

Greenwich Hospital recently met safety standards set by the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program. Other Connecticut hospitals, including Stamford Hospital, were not so lucky and may face fines.

Those that performed the worst on key patient safety measures would lose 1 percent of every Medicare payment for a year starting in October. While it's still unclear what the statewide impact will be, at least one hospital said it could lose up to $500,000.

"This will make a difference because hospitals will react to the public finding about out this information," said Jean Rexford, executive director of the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety, a Redding-based watchdog group.

The loss of funding, and the release of information about their performance, could motivate hospitals to take a closer look at their safety practices, Rexford said.

The new system stems from the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program, mandated by the Affordable Care Act, the sweeping federal health reform legislation also referred to as Obamacare. It's one of several ACA programs in which hospitals are financially punished or rewarded for how well they perform.

Under the program, hospitals are assigned a rating from 1 to 10 (with 10 being the worst) based on their performances in three areas -- the rate of bloodstream infections linked to catheters, the rate of urine infections linked to catheters and the rate of other avoidable safety problems, such as bedsores and hip fractures.

The Kaiser report included preliminary hospital safety ratings released by the federal government in April. At that time, hospitals were given a fine if they scored above a 7.

Financial sanctions

A quarter of hospitals nationwide, up to 750 hospitals, could be penalized, according to Kaiser's analysis. In its first year, the program could issue up to $330 million in sanctions nationwide.

Danbury Hospital scored a 10.

The Kaiser report stated that hospitals receiving a rating of nine or higher were the most likely to lose funding.

But, despite the damning ranking, Andrea Rynn, spokeswoman for Western Connecticut Health Network -- which includes Danbury Hospital -- remained optimistic about the chain's progress in safety measures, and about safety in the state as a whole.

"Connecticut hospitals were recently recognized by the American Hospital Association for being the first state in the U.S. where, collectively, the hospitals have made a deep commitment to patient safety," Rynn said in an emailed statement. "Specifically, our hospitals are embracing the principles of high reliability organizations through weekly inter-disciplinary team meetings and training, leading to improved patient care and outcomes."

Not all those who received a fine will lose funding when Medicare assesses final penalties later this year because the government will be looking at data from a longer period of time than it did for the preliminary assessment. The preliminary ratings cover the 12-month period from July 2012 to June 2013. The final rating will cover each hospital's performance from the beginning of 2012 through the end of 2013.

Some hospitals may benefit from that wider window. Stamford Hospital, which received a preliminary rating of 8.7, has taken great strides to reduce the number of hospital-based infections, said Rohit Bhalla, Stamford Hospital vice president and chief quality officer.

The data that led to the preliminary fine "is pretty old," Bhalla said, adding that the hospital has lowered its rate of infections by anywhere from 30 to 50 percent. "We're already focused on these areas," he said.

Bhalla said remained optimistic that Stamford would avoid losing funding, but, if it does, it stands to lose up to $500,000.

Rynn, meanwhile, said she could not predict how much the Western Connecticut network hospitals could lose if any of them got penalized.

Infections too common

Yale New Haven Health System, which includes Greenwich Hospital, Bridgeport Hospital and Yale-New Haven Hospital deferred comment to the Connecticut Hospital Association. Bridgeport Hospital received a preliminary rating of 8.375 and Yale-New Haven was given a score of 8.025.

Connecticut Hospital Association spokeswoman Michele Sharp said she does expect at least some hospitals in the state to get hit with fines. She said the state has been working hard to improve safety measures for several years.

"While Connecticut hospitals have experienced reductions in many of the hospital-acquired complications that are part of the HAC Reduction Program, the findings help hospitals identify areas in which further improvement is needed," she said.

However, she did have some reservations about the program.

"It's worth noting that by law, 25 percent of hospitals will always face HAC penalties each year regardless of improved performance," she said. "So even if an individual hospital improves its performance from one year to the next, it may still be subject to a penalty."

Hospital-based infections and injuries have long been a concern, both nationwide and in Connecticut. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on any given day, at least one in 25 patients in the U.S. has at least one infection during the course of their hospital care. In 2011 alone, there was an estimated 722,000 infections, and about 75,000 patients died from these infections, according to CDC data released earlier this year.

In Connecticut, the state Department of Public Health reported that in 2012, the most recent years for which numbers were available, there were 244 hospital-acquired complications at state hospitals, a number that has remained relatively consistent with the previous seven years.